Throxenby Scandal: Chief Constable Comments

Throxenby Scandal: Chief Constable Comments

by TIM HICKS

~~~~~

Introduction: The Throxenby Hall Rape Gang

In 2015, the NYE started investigating child abuse at Throxenby Hall, Scarborough.

Throxenby Hall was a residential school for troubled youngsters situated on  the outskirts of Scarborough. It began in 1946 as a home for boys, run by the former North Riding Council and then by the North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) Social Services Department. It housed up to 60 boys aged 9 and over and closed in 1991. In 2015 the NYE started investigating multiple allegations of sexual and physical abuse at the home by North Yorkshire County Council Residential Care Officers.

The regime at Throxenby Hall was brutal and inexcusable. Some of the staff were undoubtedly sadistic and some were paedophiles. The NYE is aware of one child of about fourteen years old – Martin Mennell – who died there, in a mysterious accident in the swimming pool in 1984. Other former pupils are alleged to have taken their own lives because of the abuse they suffered there.

As our readers would expect, we have never given up on the Throxenby Hall investigation and over the years we have run many appeals for information on Throxenby Hall. Our investigation has steadily pieced together information and recently established that as well as abusing the boys at Throxenby Hall themselves, the NYCC Residential Care Officers were trafficking boys from Throxenby Hall to Peter Jaconelli and Jimmy Savile in Scarborough. The Residential Care Officers were protected from prosecution by NYCC Social Workers. Savile and Jaconelli were protected by North Yorkshire Police (NYP), so the abusers were able to carry on abusing with impunity, destroying the lives of many victims.

The Response of NYP and NYCC

Predictably, despite the fact that there are multiple witnesses of the industrial scale of the abuse that was inflicted on boys at Throxenby Hall, that the identities of some of the abusers are known to NYP and NYCC, and they are still alive and could face prosecution, no one has been convicted of anything.

Nor have the teachers, school governors, local councillors, social workers and policemen that turned a blind eye or actively protected Savile, Jaconelli and the Throxenby Hall Residential Care Officers ever faced any form of criticism or punishment. Even though their part in this scandal is in some ways even worse than that of the abusers.

The NYE has been faced by a wall of silence and obstruction. Neither NYP, or the successor to NYCC – North Yorkshire Council (NYC) – will comment. The NYE has been proscribed by both organisations, so they do not have to respond to requests for media comment from the NYE.

Media coverage is essential in non recent child abuse investigations, to raise public awareness and inform victims of the existence of an investigation, so they can come forward to the police. You would think that NYP would be pleased with the NYE’s coverage and contact it to get access to the information we have gathered.

However, NYP CID has contacted the NYE.

‘The Car-Wash Queen’ breaks cover

This report from the Yorkshire Post alleges that “many” former pupils from Throxenby Hall have committed suicide because of the abuse they suffered. It apparently emanates from NYP Officers involved in the investigation into Throxenby Hall, called Operation Manuka, which prosecuted one man who was acquitted. Given the nature and the scale of the abuse inflicted on boys there, I find this allegation entirely credible. One former Throxenby Hall pupil I have interviewed, who I call John (not his real name), still gets nightmares and flashbacks about Throxenby Hall. He suffers from clinical depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a result of his time there.

I emailed NYP Chief Constable Forber in October 2024, asking if NYP Officers were aware of multiple suicides amongst former Throxenby Hall pupils and if so, how many former pupils NYP is aware of who took their own lives as a result of the abuse they suffered there. Chief Constable Forber responded on the 7^th of January 2025 in the form of a Freedom of Information request:

“In respect of Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) we can neither confirm nor deny if North Yorkshire Police does or does not hold the information you have requested. It is estimated that the cost of complying with your request for information would exceed the “appropriate costs limit” under Section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.”

Clearly, this is a pretext to avoid answering the question. All Chief Constable Forber had to do was pick up his ‘phone and ask the Senior Investigating Officer for Operation Manuka and he would have the answer almost immediately. However, he is supported in his policy of not commenting by NYC & CoC Combined Authority Deputy Mayor Jo Coles, which means he can withhold information and avoid investigating Throxenby Hall with impunity.

Chief Constable Forber’s rather off-hand response demonstrates the determination of NYP not to investigate child abuse at Throxenby Hall. Presumably because to do so would focus attention on the inexcusable and ongoing failure by his Force to do anything about it at the time and the way it has obstructed the investigation since.

Coming Next

The response of Scarborough & Whitby MP Alison Hume to the scandal.

NYE Appeal for Information

If you have had a bad experience of being strip searched or if you were badly treated in an NYP Custody Suite or were at Throxenby Hall, or Kirklevington Detention Centre, please contact the NYE in complete confidence using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address.

The NYE would particularly like to hear from:

• Anyone who knew Martin Mennell, who drowned in the Throxenby Hall swimming pool.

Right of Reply

If you are mentioned in this article and do not agree with the views expressed in it, or if you wish to correct any factual inaccuracy, please let me know using the letters@nyenquirer.uk email address with your views, and a correction will be published if appropriate.